Hurting muscles

vonnywaft

Had a couple of intense wheelchair basketball games yesterday, where I was on court the whole game, both games. I'm 45, so not as young as I was and I really do feel it sometimes. I train a couple of nights a week with my club and swim at least once a week, as well as having one or two games most weekends throughout the season in the national league, which is mixed (male and females together), for those games I'm subbed in and out like everyone else. But 3-4 weekends a year we have women's league, where the games are all in one day, so I might play 2 or 3 games. In my women's team I have to play most of the game every game due to us having fewer players than in my mixed first division team. So by the third quarter of our first game yesterday my upper arms were burning, and felt like lead and despite a break in between games, my arms were killing me pretty soon into the second game and right to the end. I had to play through it but it hurt like mad and I'm stiff as anything today. I know training more might help, but I'm a busy working mum and theere's a limit to how many evenings I can be out training.
So I'm wondering what I could do to get my ageing muscles through the occassional highly intense couple of games, when our usual schedule is a little more leisurely. Is it all about training or is there a nutritional boost I could use. I don't really use sports drinks or shakes as I don't like them, but I'm open to trying if it'll help. I don't really understand the science of sport nutrition.

Nopedotjpeg

Sounds like that many games within a day is just a big endurance test that your muscles may not be used to. What does training usually consist of?

chrishgt4

Had a couple of intense wheelchair basketball games yesterday, where I was on court the whole game, both games. I'm 45, so not as young as I was and I really do feel it sometimes. I train a couple of nights a week with my club and swim at least once a week, as well as having one or two games most weekends throughout the season in the national league, which is mixed (male and females together), for those games I'm subbed in and out like everyone else. But 3-4 weekends a year we have women's league, where the games are all in one day, so I might play 2 or 3 games. In my women's team I have to play most of the game every game due to us having fewer players than in my mixed first division team. So by the third quarter of our first game yesterday my upper arms were burning, and felt like lead and despite a break in between games, my arms were killing me pretty soon into the second game and right to the end. I had to play through it but it hurt like mad and I'm stiff as anything today. I know training more might help, but I'm a busy working mum and theere's a limit to how many evenings I can be out training.
So I'm wondering what I could do to get my ageing muscles through the occassional highly intense couple of games, when our usual schedule is a little more leisurely. Is it all about training or is there a nutritional boost I could use. I don't really use sports drinks or shakes as I don't like them, but I'm open to trying if it'll help. I don't really understand the science of sport nutrition.

Sounds like lactic acid build up which comes down to muscle endurance.

Low(er) weights high rep training is the way forward to get your muscles used to working like this.

vonnywaft

I could do a gym session maybe once a week if that might help, I was wondering about weight training and whether it might help. Our club training sessions are a mixture of fitness work, skills drills, tactical drills and scrimmaging, so it can be a bit stop-start at times and I think that's why I struggled with the endurance at the weekend. I had a cooked breakfast early on that day, then because of the timings of the games I didn't eat again til after the second game so i'm also wondering about enrgy drinks etc. Any advice is welcome. thanks you guys.

Nopedotjpeg

As cliche as it is, Gatorade is a pretty good thing to have for times like that. A Clif/granola bar could work too.

Hotrodhoodlum

Your muscles hurting is just repairing them selves . Would not hurt doing biceps and triceps excercises to build your ams .

vonnywaft

I don't want my upper arms to get any bigger though, I can't wear women's fitted shirts as it is. Can I do strenght training without getting arms like yours Hotrod? to be honest they're not far off that already LOL.

Hmmm Gatorade! i think they sponsored the Paralympics in Atlanta in 1996, there were bottles of the stuff everywhere you looked, nasty nasty stuff! i should try and find an energy drink I like. i also have a difficult relationship with carbs which probably doesn't help. And what is it with sports centres and gyms that only sell crisps and chocolate in their vending machines??

OK so I need to organise myself better with high energy snacks or drinks on intense game days and I need to do some strength work on my arms. I'll let you know how that goes, we've got a couple more rounds of Womens League coming up soon (one that got rescheduled due to snow in Jan or Feb) and then finals in May I think.

thanks for the advice.

_mr_b

Have you thought of having a recovery drink straight after such an intense work out? It'd give your muscles a helping hand to repair and recover and reduce the aches and pains the following day(s). I use SIS Rego Recovery, the strawberry one tastes great too.

chrishgt4

I don't want my upper arms to get any bigger though, I can't wear women's fitted shirts as it is. Can I do strenght training without getting arms like yours Hotrod? to be honest they're not far off that already LOL.

Hmmm Gatorade! i think they sponsored the Paralympics in Atlanta in 1996, there were bottles of the stuff everywhere you looked, nasty nasty stuff! i should try and find an energy drink I like. i also have a difficult relationship with carbs which probably doesn't help. And what is it with sports centres and gyms that only sell crisps and chocolate in their vending machines??

OK so I need to organise myself better with high energy snacks or drinks on intense game days and I need to do some strength work on my arms. I'll let you know how that goes, we've got a couple more rounds of Womens League coming up soon (one that got rescheduled due to snow in Jan or Feb) and then finals in May I think.

thanks for the advice.

Women don't really have the ability to get massive muscles so I wouldn't worry about that. Especially since if you're training for endurance you will be doing higher reps which isn't ideal for muscular hypertrophy.

May63

I don't want my upper arms to get any bigger though, I can't wear women's fitted shirts as it is. Can I do strenght training without getting arms like yours Hotrod? to be honest they're not far off that already LOL.

Hmmm Gatorade! i think they sponsored the Paralympics in Atlanta in 1996, there were bottles of the stuff everywhere you looked, nasty nasty stuff! i should try and find an energy drink I like. i also have a difficult relationship with carbs which probably doesn't help. And what is it with sports centres and gyms that only sell crisps and chocolate in their vending machines??

OK so I need to organise myself better with high energy snacks or drinks on intense game days and I need to do some strength work on my arms. I'll let you know how that goes, we've got a couple more rounds of Womens League coming up soon (one that got rescheduled due to snow in Jan or Feb) and then finals in May I think.

thanks for the advice.

i read milk is an energy drink in it self

vonnywaft

Oh dear milk or gatorade? What a choice.( Makes vomiting noises) LOL. Need to do some research on this. I'm in the UK by the way.

Nopedotjpeg

Try fruit juice. Its loaded with simple carbs which u need for an endurance event.

munichmangler

Sounds like your muscles are not used to this kind of continuous endurance exercise which means the pain would be due to the build-up of lactic acid in the muscle fibres. A good way of dealing with that are long-held stretches immediately after exercising (or in the breaks between bouts of intense exercise). Make sure to stretch all the muscles involved slowly and thoroughly. It will aid your muscles' recovery and can drastically reduce the pain.

Char_marcus

ice and cold compresses are great for muscle fatigue as it reduces the inflammation caused by the muscles, also up your water / fluid intake, it helps flush out the lactic acid build up, and after a while your muscles will get used to it :happy:

vonnywaft

Thanks for the suggestions, now fruit juice I can drink, I like that idea lots! I did drink gallons of water on Sunday, but I still feel dehydrated now, dry skin, cracked lips etc. I have some instant ice packs at home, I'll pack a few of those next time as that would have helped on the day, and I was trying to stretch every which way to loosen up in time outs and breaks but it wasn't enough. There was a time when i was much younger, where I was playing and training at that kind of intensity regularly and you do get used to it. Now though, I've got a much more pressured job and a kid to think about and I can't commit to crazy training schedules ( and I'm not in my 20s anymore, by quite a way!!). But I've got some good ideas to try to help manage next time now and I'm going to add in some weight training too to help build up the muscle endurance. Thanks again.